Monday, December 26, 2011

11.) The Wounded Beat - Mombi (Top 20 Albums of 2011)

On the morning I
left for Sauble Beach, my friend texted me some choice lyrics from Mombi’s
‘Cascade Cliffs’. By doing so he’d incepted my mind with the song’s aching
undertow, which followed me over my hour-long wait at the bus station, another
six hours as I traveled to Hamilton, and the time I spent wandering that city’s
corridors waiting for my ride. Loud, open-window rock songs and laughter
overtook our car trip but when we arrived to the coast, well after dark,
‘Cascade Cliffs’ returned to me.

A melancholic heart
the size of The Wounded Beat is difficult to fully shake. It scales over the listener
like a slate-grey cloud and cloaks us in thick ambient mists (‘Monsoon’, ‘The
Misunderstanding’). Those impenetrable tracks armed in four-by-four beats offer
a bittersweet contrast to Mombi’s more acoustic fare, with ‘Glowing Beatdown’
and ‘More Coal For the Miners and More Meals To Be Given Out’ encompassing the
record’s vast plain of introspection. What stands on its own as a solid album
is deepened greatly by well-known names guiding The Wounded Beat’s sound: Keith
Kenniff (Helios) on production duties and Taylor Deupree, who mastered the
disc. With such a crack team collaborating here, it’s no wonder even the lesser
highlights on Mombi’s debut manage to cling to our memories so resolutely. A
beautiful heartbreak of a record.